Kevin L. Hester

Kevin L. Hester was named the Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness in 2017 following six years of service as the Director of Institutional Planning and Assessment. In this role he oversees all institutional and academic assessment and institutional planning in order to insure fidelity to mission and attainment of institutional goals. Dr. Hester also serves as the institutional liaison to Welch College’s accrediting bodies the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Association for Biblical Higher Education Commission on Accreditation.

Dr. Hester is the Chair for the Commission on Accreditation for the Association for Biblical Higher Education and regularly serves as a peer evaluator for both accrediting bodies. He is a 2019 Presnell Fellow of the Executive Leadership Institute of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association and serves as an editor for the Biblical Higher Education Journal.

Dr. Hester has served as Professor of Theology since 2003 and Dean of the School of Theology since 2016. A graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1997) and Saint Louis University (Ph.D., 2002), Dr. Hester regularly teaches classes on Christian philosophy, church history, and theology. Notable published works include: Free Will Baptists and the Priesthood of Believers (Nashville: Randall House Publications, 2010); and, Eschatology and Pain in St. Gregory the Great: The Christological Synthesis of Gregory’s Morals on the Book of Job. (London: Paternoster, 2007).